Intravenous or infusion fluid such as blood is commonly used in hospitals and in the field for example in emergency or war zones. The infusion fluid is important for virtually all medical procedures and applications. Such infusion is typically delivered from an IV fluid bag or container into a blood vessel of a patient. It is desirable to warm the blood or IV fluid to a certain range of temperature (e.g. between 36 and 37 degrees Celsius) to avoid temperature drop in the patient which may lead to hypothermia.
There exist various conventional devices and techniques for heating or warming infusion fluids before being administrated to a patient. However, these conventional devices and techniques suffer from a number of drawbacks. The conventional infusion fluid warmers are bulky and heavy which make them unsuited for portable applications where they have to be transported by foot for example by soldiers, rescue workers or ambulance crews to reach inaccessible emergency sites. The heavy and bulky nature of existing infusion fluid warmers also makes it difficult or impossible to secure or attach these to the patient's body in a convenient and safe manner. Another disadvantage of existing fluid warmers is that they are composed of a large number of separate parts which make them expensive to manufacture and tend to reduce reliability due to a multitude of separate engaging parts.
Yet another disadvantage of existing fluid warmers is a lack of a mechanism for capturing and coupling heat energy dissipated in the energy source during fluid warming to the infusion fluid. This leads to inefficient use of energy stored in the energy source, such as rechargeable or non-rechargeable batteries, and therefore a need for larger, heavier and more costly energy sources than strictly required to warm a given volume or amount of infusion fluid. According to one aspect of the present invention, this problem is solved by conducting excess heat energy generated by a portable energy source to the infusion fluid to heat the latter. Thus, ensuring that the energy held in the portable energy source is put to efficient use.
WO 2003/049790 A1 describes a system for heating transfusion fluids comprising a fluid warmer having an inlet channel and an outlet channel. A fluid passage of meandering shape is formed in a separate cartridge arranged between a pair of heat contact plates.